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22 June 2016

Practical Guide: Shares of online marketing for local businesses

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Online marketing strategies to local businesses seem to not take into account many manuals and guides marketing. The consequence of all this is that many managers of local companies end up thinking about the impossibility of shares in profitable internet marketing for them.

Globality Internet seems to be a mental barrier to transfer difficult for many local businesses, and on the other hand, the low budget that often is associated with the own local context. Well, in this direction there is a great message to give: “You do not have a national or multinational business, nor a big budget to create a successful online marketing strategy”.

Effective online marketing actions for local businesses

That said, I will provide a list of online marketing activities that can be useful in these geographical conditions:

  • Local SEO: If you have a local business, your website must be adapted to local searches. How to do that? To start optimizing your “title” and “description” of your website indicating your geographic location. On the other hand, you can add a page of “where to find” with a map of google maps. And finally, start a blog and write some articles where occasionally (not too much) you can incorporate your location.
  • Platforms and local directories: Following the SEO strategy, it is highly recommended to register as a local business in Google Places, Facebook Places, Yelp, QDQ and the like. These links will help your website positioning and attract local traffic to your website.
  • Facebook activity: Organically (without pay) you can do is to open a “fanpage” and include you in local groups. There you can participate from time to time without being too brash with self-promotion.
  • Twitter activity: In this network can carry out effective actions in different ways. The first is to make local manual searches and see “what fighters” as conversations and users who live nearby. The second is to use a tool such as Followerwonk to locate users who live near your business. And finally, with a little ingenuity, you can locate a Hashtag close to your location.
  • Segmented PPC ads: Platforms On Google adwords, facebook ads and LinkedIn ads have the option to segment your ads by location. You can do city for example and only see your ads there. It is a fantastic option to expand your network of customers.
  • Joint action with local media: Here I recommend two options. You can negotiate with a local newspaper that composing an article of interest to your profession and on occasion can enter a link to your website in the signature of the article. Or on the other hand to carry out any action that is “newsworthy” to local media. For this you need creativity and ability to draw attention without damaging the image of your local business.
  • Marketing actions with social network: This social network is focused on geolocation of users. The first thing to do is to sign up on the platform and communicate that are present in it. You can then perform some actions such as offering discounts to users who “check-in” at your local or making lists of places to visit and publish it.
  • Leverage your traffic offline to increase your mailing list: This is very basic and they forget many people. It is best to find some favorable context to ask your visitors email. One option may be to make a “customer card” with special conditions. In this way you’re increasing your list so you can send interesting information and help maintain communication with them.
  • Wi-Fi marketing: This is fairly new but very useful. If you have a cafeteria, library or the like can incorporate a wireless service where users having to register. This data can then be used to bring an effective email marketing strategy.

As you can see, there are many valid options strategies and marketing activities for local businesses. Only a matter of information and do some “testings” to find the right path.